Connect with us

Technology

Midi creates a digital platform for the often overlooked area of ​​women’s health

Published

on

When Joanna Strober was about 47 years old, she stopped sleeping. Although sleep loss is a common symptom of perimenopause, she first needed to go to multiple doctors, similar to driving 45 minutes from San Francisco to pay $750 out of pocket, to get a diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

“That feeling of ‘wow, I’ve really suffered unnecessarily over the last year’ really stuck with me,” Strober said in a recent episode of Podcast Found on TechCrunch. “I started talking to all my friends and trying to understand what was happening to them, and it became clear that perimenopause and menopause were serious. This hits women like a pile of bricks. It has many different symptoms and very few providers are trained to care for this population.”

This realization inspired Strober to launch Midi Health, a telehealth platform designed to serve midlife women by connecting them with healthcare providers trained in the symptoms and coverings of perimenopause and menopause.

Despite her “aha” moment, Strober explained why she couldn’t launch her startup instantly. She said Midi would not have existed if the U.S. government hadn’t modified regulations around telehealth and access to care during the pandemic. Strober said that because of changes in digital health, the company was capable of launch a platform that gives women with care as a substitute of having to depend on in-person care.

“It was a very exciting discovery to understand that this problem, which has existed for a long time, could finally be solved through telehealth,” Strober said. “And that’s why I wanted to start this company.”

Strober said Midi operates a little in another way than many other digital health firms which have sprung up in the wake of the pandemic. She said Midi was not created as a digital avenue through which users could get one-off care or treatment as quickly as possible, like many other firms of the same era, but relatively as a platform where women built long-term relationships with women. suppliers who make them feel noticed.

This approach can also be why Strober believes Midi has been capable of proceed to grow and lift VC funding as VCs have lost interest in the category. The company recently raised a $60 million B round led by Emerson Collective, with participation from Google Ventures, SteelSky Ventures and Muse Capital, amongst others. This round brings the company’s total funding to $99 million.

According to. digital health startups raised $13.2 billion globally in 2023 CB Insights data. This represents a decline of 48% in comparison with 2022, to $25.5 billion, and a decline of 75% in comparison with 2021, when a record amount of $52.7 billion was invested.

“I think too few telehealth companies haven’t thought about long-term customer relationships,” Strober said. “We see ourselves as constructing a trustworthy brand in the healthcare industry. Our brand is due to this fact skilled women’s care. We have to offer you such amazing care that you’ll come back to us repeatedly. That’s what women do.”

Midi shouldn’t be Strober’s first digital health startup, and she or he shared how her past experience constructing Kurbo Health, a startup focused on childhood obesity before digital health even existed, influenced her decisions to construct Midi. She also shared how her previous life as a enterprise capitalist also played a role in her approach to business.

With this latest round of funding, Midi looks forward to expanding care in areas covered by perimenopause and menopause, including sexual well-being, hair and skincare, and testosterone access.

“People keep asking, when do you get out of perimenopause and menopause?” Strober said. “But perimenopause and menopause are a big market. So we’re working a lot to understand what women’s health needs are at this time in their lives and how we can address those concerns appropriately.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is leaving PhonePe’s board

Published

on

By

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has stepped down three-quarters from PhonePe’s board after making an identical move on the e-commerce giant.

Bengaluru-based PhonePe said it has appointed Manish Sabharwal, executive director at recruitment and human resources firm Teamlease, as an independent director and chairman of the audit committee.

Bansal played a key role in Flipkart’s acquisition of PhonePe in 2016 and has since served on the fintech’s board. The Walmart-backed startup, which operates India’s hottest mobile payment app, spun off from Flipkart in 2022 and was valued at $12 billion in funding rounds that raised about $850 million last 12 months.

Bansal still holds about 1% of PhonePe. Neither party explained why they were leaving the board.

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Binny Bansal for being one of the first and staunchest supporters of PhonePe,” Sameer Nigam, co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, said in a press release. His lively involvement, strategic advice and private mentoring have profoundly enriched our discussions. We will miss Binny!”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading

Technology

The company is currently developing washing machines for humans

Published

on

By

Forget about cold baths. Washing machines for people may soon be a brand new solution.

According to at least one Japanese the oldest newspapersOsaka-based shower head maker Science has developed a cockpit-shaped device that fills with water when a bather sits on a seat in the center and measures an individual’s heart rate and other biological data using sensors to make sure the temperature is good. “It also projects images onto the inside of the transparent cover to make the person feel refreshed,” the power says.

The device, dubbed “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (the human washing machine of the longer term), may never go on sale. Indeed, for now the company’s plans are limited to the Osaka trade fair in April, where as much as eight people will have the option to experience a 15-minute “wash and dry” every day after first booking.

Apparently a version for home use is within the works.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading

Technology

Zepto raises another $350 million amid retail upheaval in India

Published

on

By

Zepto, snagging $1 billion in 90 days, projects 150% annual growth

Zepto has secured $350 million in latest financing, its third round of financing in six months, because the Indian high-speed trading startup strengthens its position against competitors ahead of a planned public offering next yr.

Indian family offices, high-net-worth individuals and asset manager Motilal Oswal invested in the round, maintaining Zepto’s $5 billion valuation. Motilal co-founder Raamdeo Agrawal, family offices Mankind Pharma, RP-Sanjiv Goenka, Cello, Haldiram’s, Sekhsaria and Kalyan, in addition to stars Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar are amongst those backing the brand new enterprise, which is India’s largest fully national primary round.

The funding push comes as Zepto rushes so as to add Indian investors to its capitalization table, with foreign ownership now exceeding two-thirds. TechCrunch first reported on the brand new round’s deliberations last month. The Mumbai-based startup has raised over $1.35 billion since June.

Fast commerce sales – delivering groceries and other items to customers’ doors in 10 minutes – will exceed $6 billion this yr in India. Morgan Stanley predicts that this market shall be value $42 billion by 2030, accounting for 18.4% of total e-commerce and a pair of.5% of retail sales. These strong growth prospects have forced established players including Flipkart, Myntra and Nykaa to cut back delivery times as they lose touch with specialized delivery apps.

While high-speed commerce has not taken off in many of the world, the model seems to work particularly well in India, where unorganized retail stores are ever-present.

High-speed trading platforms are creating “parallel trading for consumers seeking convenience” in India, Morgan Stanley wrote in a note this month.

Zepto and its rivals – Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy-owned Instamart and Tata-owned BigBasket – currently operate on lower margins than traditional retail, and Morgan Stanley expects market leaders to realize contribution margins of 7-8% and adjusted EBITDA margins to greater than 5% by 2030. (Zepto currently spends about 35 million dollars monthly).

An investor presentation reviewed by TechCrunch shows that Zepto, which handles greater than 7 million total orders every day in greater than 17 cities, is heading in the right direction to realize annual sales of $2 billion. It anticipates 150% growth over the following 12 months, CEO Aadit Palicha told investors in August. The startup plans to go public in India next yr.

However, the rapid growth of high-speed trading has had a devastating impact on the mom-and-pop stores that dot hundreds of Indian cities, towns and villages.

According to the All India Federation of Consumer Products Distributors, about 200,000 local stores closed last yr, with 90,000 in major cities where high-speed trading is more prevalent.

The federation has warned that without regulatory intervention, more local shops shall be vulnerable to closure as fast trading platforms prioritize growth over sustainable practices.

Zepto said it has created job opportunities for tons of of hundreds of gig employees. “From day one, our vision has been to play a small role in nation building, create millions of jobs and offer better services to Indian consumers,” Palicha said in an announcement.

Regulatory challenges arise. Unless an e-commerce company is a majority shareholder of an Indian company or person, current regulations prevent it from operating on a listing model. Fast trading corporations don’t currently follow these rules.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending